Mac Amhlaigh, Liam
(2008)
The role of Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla Néill Uí Dhónaill in Irish language lexicography in the twentieth century.
In:
Proceedings of the 13th EURALEX International Congress.
Institut Universitari de Linguistica Aplicada, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, pp. 1149-1154.
ISBN 9788496742673
Abstract
This paper sets out to chronicle the compilation and usage of the Foclóir Gaeilge-
Béarla⎯or Irish-English Dictionary⎯by Niall Ó Dónaill, Tomás de Bhaldraithe and the
lexicography team in An Gúm working on behalf of the Department of Education in the
Republic of Ireland. As the primary modern dictionary of its time, its effect on the teaching
and usage of the Irish language in the last quarter of the twentieth century is profound.
This is especially the case in light of the fact that no update or amendment to it has ever
been seen fit to be produced. Unlike the forthcoming English-Irish dictionary in motion
under the auspices of Foras na Gaeilge-the government body responsible under Irish law
for the promotion of the Irish language and Irish language organizations-and
Lexicography MasterClass, there is no likelihood of any new Irish-English dictionary being
produced in the near future. The evolution of the dictionary began as a development from
the publication of the English-Irish Dictionary of Tomás de Bhaldraithe in 1959 when an
equivalent resource for language users was desired from the opposite perspective-that of
the Irish language user looking for the appropriate and most up-to-date English idiom for
the words sought. The paper analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the dictionary
together with the reasons that necessitated the production of the dictionary as it was. The
paper represents a flavour of the ongoing research in the area of Irish language
lexicography of the twentieth century, utilising, among other sources, the papers of Tomás
de Bhaldraithe situated in University College Dublin's Cártlann na gCanúintí-Irish
language dialect archive, the papers of Muiris Ó Droighneáin, one of Ireland's foremost
grammatical consultants and the papers and archive of An Gúm, the Irish language
publishing wing of the Department of Education.
| Item Type: |
Book Section
|
| Additional Information: |
All materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permission is granted to make copies for the purposes of teaching and research. |
| Keywords: |
Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla; Néill Uí Dhónaill; Irish Language; Lexicography; Twentieth Century; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education |
| Item ID: |
9184 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Liam Mac Amhlaigh
|
| Date Deposited: |
25 Jan 2018 16:15 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Proceedings of the 13th EURALEX International Congress}, |
| Publisher: |
Institut Universitari de Linguistica Aplicada, Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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